J  H 
Potter 


THE    TALE     OF 


Beatrix  Potter 


308 


374791 


%^Jl 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


PRESENTED  BY 

Terrell  O.  Everett 
Estate 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://archive.org/details/taleofpeterrabbipott 


THE  TALE 


OF 


PETER  RABBIT 


I 


THE  TALE    OF 


L 
H 

\\-er 


Beatrix  Potter 


AKRON.O. 

TH£  SAALFIELD  PUBLISHING  CO. 

NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 

PRINTED  IN  U.  3.  A. 


ir^iniajilkrt;. 


COPYRIGHT,  1916 

BY 

THE  SAALFIELD  PUB.  Co* 


4 


THE  TALE 

OF 

PETER     RABBIT 

Once  upon  a  time  there 
were  four  little  rabbits,  and 


their  names  were  Flopsy, 


;  ( 


Mopsy,  Cotton-tail  and  Peter. 


HEY  lived  with 

their  mother  in 

a  sand-bank, 

underneath  the  root   of 

a  very  big  fir  tree. 

"Now,   my   dears," 

said    old    Mrs.    Rabbit 

fjr       t  one  morning,  "You  may 


go  into  the  fields  or 
down  the  lane,  but  don't 
go  into  Mr.  McGregor's 


Your  father  had  an 
accident  there;  he  was 
put   in   a    pie    by   Mrs. 


McGregor. 


OW  run  along  and  don't 
get   into  mischief.      I  am 
going    out." 


HEN  old  Mrs.  Rabbit 
took  a  basket  and  her 


umbrella  and  went 
through   the   wood   to   the 
baker's. 


HE    bought    a    loaf    of 
brown    bread    and    five 
currant    buns. 
Flopsy,  Mopsy  and  Cotton-tail 
who  were  good  little  bunnies 
went   down   the    lane   together 


To  gather  blackberries, 


UT   Peter    who 
was   very 
naughty,     ran 
straight    away   to 
Mr.    McGregor's 
garden   and 


QUEEZED 

under 
the  gate! 


zy. 


IRST  he  ate 
some  lettuces 
and  some 


French   beans 


He 

Ate 

Some 

Radishes 


ND  then,  feeling 
rather  sick, 
he  went  to  look  for 


some  parsley. 


-¥  W- 


But  round  the 
end  of  a  cu- 
cumber frame, 
whom  should 
he  meet  but 
Mr.McGregor! 
Mr.  McGregor  was  on  his  hands 
and  knees  planting  out  young  cab- 
bages, but  he  jumped  up  and  ran 
after  Peter,  waving  a  rake  and  call- 
ing out  "Stop  thief!" 


ETER  was  most 
dreadfully 
frightened;  he 
rushed  all  over  the  gar- 
den, for  he  had  forgotten 
the  way  back  to  the  gate. 


E  lost   one   shoe   among 
the   cabbages,    and   the 
other  amongst  the  potatoes. 


FTER  losing  them,  he 
ran  on  four  legs  and 
went   faster 


he    might    have    got        §§ 


away  altogether 
if   he  had    not 
unfortunately  run  into    § 
a  gooseberry  net 


And  got  caught  by  the  large 
buttons  on  his  jacket. 


It  was  a  blue  jacket  with 
brass  buttons,  quite  new. 


But  his  sobs  were  over- 
heard   by  some  friendly 


sparrows 


HO  flew 
to    him    in 
great    ex- 


citement  and 
implored   him    to 
exert  himself. 


^}>\( 
p 


R.  McGREGOR  came 
up  with  a  sieve  which 
he  intended  to  pop  on  the  top 
of  Peter,  but  Peter  wriggled  out 
just  in  time. 


o 


Vmi> 


-X 


\ 


E  rushed  into  the 
tool-shed  and — 


UMPED  into  a 

can. 


. 


It  would  have  been  a 
beautiful  thing  to  hide 
in,  if  it  had  not  had 
so  much  water  in  it. 
Mr,  McGregor  was  quite 
sure  that  Peter  was 
somewhere  in  the  tool- 
shed,  perhaps  hidden 
underneath  a  flower-pot. 


He    began    to    turn 
them  over  carefully, 
looking  under  each. 

Presently    Peter 
sneezed  "Kertyschoo!" 

Mr.     McGregor     was 
after  him  in  no  time, 
and  tried  to  put  his  foot 
upon    Peter,    who 


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^^v\ 

K  -^ 


s* 


# 


UMPED  out  of  a  window, 
upsetting  three  plants. 


ETER 

sat 
down 
to  rest;  he  was 

life-  %  %^C  X^~  out  °f  breath 
and  trembling  with  fright,  and  he 
had  not  the  least  idea  which  way 
to  go. 

Also  he  was  very  damp  with  sit- 
ting in  that  can. 


FTER  a  time  he  began 
to  wander  about,  going 
lippity — 


lippity — 
not  very  fast 
and  looking 
all  around. 


E  found  a  door  in  a  wall; 
but  it  was  locked  and  there 
was  no  room  for  a  fat 
little  rabbit  to  squeeze  under- 
neath. 

An  old  mouse  was  running  in 
and  out  over  the  stone  doorstep, 
carrying  peas  and  beans  to  her 
family  in  the  wood.  Peter  asked 
her  the  way  to  the  gate  but  she 
had  such  a  large  pea  in  her  mouth 
she  could  not  answer.  She  only 
shook  her  head  at  him. 


Peter  began  to  cry. 


fs — HEN  he  tried  to  find  his 
m  ^\  way  straight  across  the  gar- 
den, but  he  became  more  and 
more  puzzled.  Presently  he  came 
to  a  pond  where  Mr.  MeGregor 
filled  his  water-cans.  A  white  cat 
was  staring  at  some  gold-fish;  she 
sat  very,  very  still,  but  now  and 
then  the  tip  of  her  tail  twitched  as 
if  it  were  alive.     Peter  thought  it 

best  to  go  away  without  speaking 

- 
to  her. 


E  had  heard  about  cats  from 
his  cousin,  little  Benjamin 
Bunny. 


*W  f r  E  went  back  towards  the 
^W  tool-shed,  but  suddenly, 
V  quite  close,  to  him,  he 
heard  the  noise  of  a  hoe — scr-r- 
ritch,  scratch,  scratch,  scritch. 
Peter  scuttered  underneath  the 
bushes,  but 
presently  as  noth- 
ing happened,  he 
came  out  and 


Climbed 
upon 
a 

wheel- 
barrow, 
and 
peeped 
over. 


fy^— HE   first   thing   he   saw  was 

#  #V      Mr.    McGregor     hoeing 

^^    onions.    His  back  was  turned 

towards    Peter  and    beyond    him 

was  the  gate! 

Peter  got  down  very  quietly  off 
the  wheel-barrow  and  started  run- 
ning as  fast  as  he  could  go,  along 
a  straight  walk  behind  some  black 
currant  bushes.  Mr.  McGregor 
caught  sight  of  him  at  the  corner, 
but  Peter  did  not  care.  He  slip- 
ped underneath  the  gate  and  was 
safe  at  last  in  the  wood  outside 
the  garden. 


Mr.  Mc- 
Gregor 
hung   up 
the   little 
ket  and 


Peter  never  stopped  running 
or  looked  behind  him 


Till  he  got  home  to  the  big 


fir-tree. 


He  was  so  tired 
that  he  flopped  down 
upon    the    nice     soft 


sand  on  the  floor  of 
the  rabbit  hole,  and 
shut  his  eyes.  His 
mother  was  busy 
cooking;  she  wondered 
what  he  had  done  with 
his  clothes. 


It  was  the  second  little  jacket  and 
pair  of  shoes  that  Peter  had  lost  in  a 
fortnight! 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  Peter  was 
not  very  well  during  the  evening. 
His  mother  put  him  to  bed  and  made 
some  camomile  tea;  and  she  gave 
a  dose  of  it  to 
Peter!  "One  '  *  * 
teaspoonful  to  be 


taken   at    bed 


V      \N  J        J 


time 


*> 


But- 


V 


DO 


LOPSY,  Mopsy  and  Cotton- 
tail had  bread  and  milk  and 
blackberries  for  supper. 


THE    TALE     OF 


